{"id":1357,"date":"2023-11-29T03:13:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T03:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/?p=1357"},"modified":"2023-11-29T03:16:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T03:16:51","slug":"searcher-post-on-the-disputes-of-rrrs-political-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/2023\/11\/29\/searcher-post-on-the-disputes-of-rrrs-political-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Searcher post on the disputes of RRR’s political message"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2022\/06\/rrr-review-indian-blockbuster-netflix-hindu-nationalism.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article from this website talks about the troubling subtext of the film RRR, with main focus on its religious iconography. It manifests the connotative emphasis on Hinduism’s castes and their toxic nature in this film using religious metaphors originating from the historical epics of Ramayana. Two male protagonists Bheem and Ram can be seen as representatives of two real freedom fighters, but they are depicted as heroes with different goals: Bheem decries the fact that, in contrast with Ram\u2019s long game, he fought the British mostly to rescue Malli, ironically confirming a sneering British officer\u2019s comment that the Gond \u201ctribals\u201d are driven by the protection of their own. Just like Vox mentioned, Ram is uplifted as the \u201cwell-educated upper-caste savior with a vision\u201d and Bheem is reduced to \u201cuneducated noble savage who must be taught the \u2018civilized\u2019 ways\u201d, revealing that deeper inside, the Adivasis were never treated fairly with the upper-casteists, and are people must be taught, civilized, and guided along by the vision of the upper-caste Hindu hand.What\u2019s more noteworthy is that Bheem is not physically weaker than Ram, but once Ram\u2019s real purpose is revealed, Bheem is immediately made to seem inferior\u2014spiritually, patriotically, societally, and even became an affiliated helper to Ram\u2019s revolutionary mission. In the last line of the film, as the Gond leader, he even reduces himself to the level of student and begging to learn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From another interesting resource that I found, which is a 28 minute interview with the actors Ram and Bheem from AP (interview from AP https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=my_K0s_Z_QM<\/a>), as the interviewer asked about the \u201cpolitical message\u201d sent through the film, Charan claims that the film is \u201cmore about the brotherhood than the nationalism or the patriotism\u201d and Rama Rao JR agreed that it\u2019s focusing on \u201cbromance\u201d. They admitted that, even though the bromance is derived from the historical epics, but they are \u201cnot playing part of the history\u201d, \u201cIt is Mr. Rajamouli\u2019s interpretation and his fictional thoughts and writing with his father.\u201d They keep emphasizing that for the filmmaker, \u201cit\u2019s just storytelling and it\u2019s about making entertainment\u201d and no other message is sent. This links to another quote from my research from https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/the-new-yorker-interview\/the-man-behind-indias-controversial-global-blockbuster-rrr-s-s-rajamouli<\/a> that says \u201cRajamouli\u2019s father, who co-wrote \u201cRRR,\u201d has been at work on a film commissioned by the R.S.S., the Hindu-nationalist extremist group, which he has called a \u201cgreat organization.\u201d Rajamouli told me that his father\u2019s script is \u201cvery emotional and extremely good.\u201d , indicating all the symbolic political presentations in RRR are not just coincidences.\u00a0 This unawareness of both the director and the characters towards the superiority of the upper-casteists proves the toxic nature of Hindu gaze, and all those willing to go along with its hegemony. Just like the first link\u2019s blogger mentioned, \u201cthere\u2019s nothing wrong with a film alluding to the Ramayana, a riveting tale with many beloved adaptations\u201d because one film cannot encompass everything and the film itself may only be as simple as a fantasy, but what\u2019s concerning is the \u201cglobal presence\u201d and the \u201crecipe for viral success that other filmmakers will be eyeing\u201d. It\u2019s an ingenious form of soft-power propaganda, one that can be interpreted as positively asserting an otherwise-marginalized ideology. In this format, viewers will be blindly led and subconscious trapped under the vision of the casteist lens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2022\/06\/rrr-review-indian-blockbuster-netflix-hindu-nationalism.html The article from this website talks about the troubling subtext of the film RRR, with main focus on its religious iconography. It manifests the connotative emphasis on Hinduism’s castes and their toxic nature in this film using religious metaphors originating from the historical epics of Ramayana. Two male protagonists Bheem and Ram can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8673,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-searcher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1361,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions\/1361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}